The latest video and DVD releases - Review

Film Comment, May, 2000 by Gavin Smith

Picks

Experimental Film x 5: Although watching avant-garde films on tape can be anathama to experimental purists, Re:Voir/USA are due respect for trying to bring such work to a wider audience with this choice selection of films by key artists. Start Brakhage's Hand-Painted Films (1986-94) is a beautifully-transferred 10-film sampling of the American avant-garde godfather's silent, color abstractions, each an exposition of what he calls "moving visual thinking," affording a spectacular and vivid range of impressions, moods, and musical rhythms. Maurice Lemaitre's Le Film est deja commence?/Has the Film Already Started? (51), is a feature-length Letterist tour-de-force, deploying virtuoso scratching and defacing of appropriated footage and disruptive voiceovers to systematically subvert and derange meaning. Influential German filmmaker Jurgen Reble, pioneer in the use of chemistry to deform and transform found-footage images, demonstrates his startling visual alchemy in his rarely-seen Passion (89-90), a diary film that chronicles a year in the life of an unborn child. The Selected Films (89-94) of Germany's Matthius Mailer employ intricate image and sound montages that combine appropriated material from Hollywood films and his own photography, to create richly associative psycho-sexual webs of meaning. The culmination is Alpsee, a full-blown psychodrama with elaborate mise en scene. Also: Short Films (72-93) by French filmmaker Patrick Bokanowski. -- Re:Voir/USA $150 each

DVD picks

Burton x 2: Pee-Wee's Big Adventure (86 + deleted scenes) -- Warner $24.98 & Sleepy Hollow (99) --Paramount $29.99

Varda x 2: Cleo From 5 to 7 (Fr., 61) & Vagabonde (Fr., 85) -- Home Vision $29.95

American Gigolo (Schrader; 80) -- Paramount $29.99

Blue Velvet (Lynch, 86) -- MGM $24.98

Love is the Devil (Maybury, UK, 98) -- Strand $24.95

Possession (Andrzej Zulawski, Fr., 81, 127 min. dir's cut) -- Anchor Bay $14.98/DVD $29.98

Whity (Fassbinder, Ger., 71) -- Fantoma DVD $29.95

Notable DVD

Chaplin x 4: The Gold Rush (25), Monsieur Verdoux (47), A King in New York (57, inc. 7 deleted mins) + A Woman of Paris (23) -- Image $29.99

Hitchcock x 2: The Birds (63, inc. deleted scene and orig. ending) & Marnie (64) -- Universal $29.98

Romero x 2: Knight Riders (81) & Martin (76) - Anchor Bay $29.98

Doris Wishman x 2: Deadly Weapons (73) & Double Agent 73 (74) -- Image $24.99 each

Alice (Svankmajer, Cz., 88 + short Darkness Light Darkness, 89) -- First Run $29.95

American Movie (Smith, 99 + 22 deleted scenes & Mark Borchardt's film Coven) -- Columbia TriStar $27.95

The Bedroom Window (Hanson, 87) -- Anchor Bay $24.98

Conan the Barbarian (Milius, 81 + deleted scenes) -- Universal $29.98

Fireworks (Kitano, Jap., 98) -- New Yorker $29.95

La grande Bouffe (Ferreri, It./Fr., 73) -- Image $24.99

The Groove Tube (Ken Shapiro, 74) -- Hen's Tooth $19.95

The Hollywood Knights (Mutrux, 80) -- Columbia TriStar rental/dvd $24.95

The Kentucky Fried Movie (Landis 74) -- Anchor Bay $24.98

King of Marvin Gardens (Rafelson, 73) -- Columbia TriStar $24.95

Little Women (Armstrong, 94 + deleted scenes) -- Columbia TriStar $24.95

Man on the Moon (Forman, 99 + deleted scenes) -- Universal $24.98

Mystery Train (Jarmusch, 89) -- MGM $24.98

Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (Albert Lewin, U.K., 51) -- Kino $29.95

Parting Glances (Bill Sherwood, 86) --First Run $29.95

Seven Days in May (Frankenheimer, 64) -- Warner $24.98

Snow Falling on Cedars (Hicks, 99 + deleted scenes) -- Universal $24.98

Les Vampires (Feuillade, Fr., 15) -- Image $69.99

Visions of Light (Glassman & McCarthy, 93) -- Image $24.99

The X-Files x 24 (Season 1, 93-94, box set) -- Fox $149.98

Other notable releases

Michael Cocoyannis x 4: Stella (Greece, 55), A Girl in Black (Gr., 56), A Matter of Dignity (Gr., 57) & Attila '74 (Gr., 75) -- Fox Lorber $19.98/DVD $29.98

Schroeder x 3: More (Fr., 69), Idi Amin Dada (doc, Fr., 74) & Maitresse (Fr., 76, WS) -- Home Vision $29.95 each

Sirk x 2: A Scandal in Paris (Ger., 46) -- Kino VHS only, $24.95 & Lured (47) -- Kino DW $29.95

Absolute Beginners (Temple, UK, 85) -- MGM $14.95

Andy Kaufman Plays Carneigie (79) -- Paramount $12.95

Being John Malkovich (Jonze, 99) -- USA rental/$24.95

Bringing Out the Dead (Scorsese, 99) -- Paramount rental/$29.99

Chocolat (Denis, Fr., 88) -- MGM $19.98

The Ed (Imamura, Jap., 97, WS) -- New Yorker rental

Felicia's Journey (Egoyan, 99) -- Artisan rental/DVD $24.98

Fruits of Passion aka The Story of O Continues (Shuji Terayama, Fr/Jap., 80) - Anchor Bay $19.98/DVD $29.98

Immoral Tales (Borowczyk, Fr., 74) -- Anchor Bay $19.98/DVD $29.98

Late August, Early September (Assayas, Fr., 98, WS) -- New Yorker rental

Leila (Darius Mehrjui, Ir., 97) -- First Run rental/DVD $29.95

Naked Killer (Clarence Ford, HK, 92, WS) -- Tai Seng $24.95/DVD $29.95

Outside Providence (Corrente, 99 + deleted scenes & alternate ending only on video) -- Buena Vista rental/DVD $24.99

The Stendahl Syndrome (Argento, It., 97) -- Troma $14.98/DVD $24.95

The Talented Mr. Ripley (Minghella, 99) -- Paramount rental/DVD $29.99